Studying & Adventuring

The Finblog on “World Wildlife Day 2018”

Want some World Wildlife Day 2018 inspiration- check out the YouTube video.

Big Cats or the panthera genus comprises species of lion, tiger, jaguar, and leopard, categorised by their capacity to roar (excluding the snow leopard, which was added to the group in 2008). The Big Cat species (and other related classes including the panther, cheetah, and puma) face multiple human-induced threats including habitat loss, poaching, human-wildlife conflict and climate change. Some species populations have been reduced by up to 96% in the past 100 years – there’s about 3,890 tigers left the wild today.

World Wildlife Day 2018 seeks to raise awareness about the plight of Big Cat (and related) species and inspire support for global and national actions that are presently underway to help protect these iconic animals.

So how can you be a Big Cat protector?

Citizen Science

Newsflash: You can help save the world for free simply sitting behind your computer. Citizen science (the general public’s participation in scientific research) allows anyone to help with conservation work. The project “Camera CATalogue” emerged following partnership between Panthera and Zooniverse, and asks (literally) anyone to help sort through pictures taken from camera traps (which take an image when movement is censored). You’ll get to learn about different classifications of animals all while helping Panthera researchers learn more about big cat populations.

Confusing, right? If you head to the Wildlife Conservation Society website, your ‘click’ will generate a donation from one of their sponsors, with 100% of the donations going directly to the Wildlife Conservation Society to protect vanishing habitat for endangered Big Cats. They’ve protected about 20,119,483 acres of Big Cat habitat thus far.